Review of how we got to Trump’s fake wall emergency

February 20, 2019

By Courage to Resist

Trump’s initial plan to “get tough” on refugees and immigrants called for the US military to detain tens of thousands in sprawling tent city concentration camps at a dozen military bases. Those plans, announced last July, didn’t get too far, due in large part to the shocking similarities to World War II Japanese-American detention camps.

Then in October, the Trump administration pivoted to deploying 6,000 active duty troops to the southern border–widely seen as a way to influence the midterm elections. “Donald Trump’s decision to send thousands of troops to the US-Mexican border to intercept migrants who intend to apply for asylum is not just a bald-faced political stunt — it is also illegal,” noted law professor Marjorie Cohn at the time.

While Courage to Resist called on troops to question those illegal orders, the Trump administration issued a “cabinet order” on December 3rd in direct violation of the federal laws assumed to safeguard against martial law. While non-military migrant holding facilities filled up, with children separated from parents and disappeared, it looked like the troops on the border would remain camped out primarily for propaganda purposes.

The troops on the border were camped for propaganda purposes. Now, they serve as the legal justification for Trump’s fake “national emergency”. Resist the new normal.